When an individual is headed for a remote destination, the individual may be concerned about weather, traffic and congestion conditions at the destination.
A method of acquiring such information known in the art includes accessing a site (a website), which provides information about the destination, by a mobile telephone or personal computer via the Internet to thereby obtain the related information at the website or post the details of the desired content on a bulletin board in the expectation that a third party will respond to this posting by placing the desired information on the bulletin board.
Information exchange systems that use a mobile telephone are described in the specifications of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-061154, 2003-016005, 2002-165009, 2002-058069, 2001-333451 and 2001-331443.
Though general information is published at a website, it is not easy to find information for a specific purpose relating to a specific region. For example, if an individual wishes to view cherry trees in bloom, weather information may relate to a relatively wide area that includes tourist attractions and neighboring areas, or the information may be too old. With the exception of certain limited locations that are well known, it is almost impossible to acquire information such as the weather and temperature, congestion and quality of visibility on various mountaintops at a certain time.
Further, even if it is attempted provide information relating to such famous locations, publishing and updating information requested by each and every individual requires a great amount of labor.
In addition, information published on a bulletin board is not very reliable in the first place and even if a question is posted on a bulletin board, there is no assurance that anyone will respond positively. Even if a response is received, the time at which the information is necessary may have passed.